MerryGold: Motherload - Mixed at Walt's Audio Engineering

[WaltsAudio]

I chose to give it a new sound stage.

hi Walt'

i think my comment ...

cheers,
Dave

Hi Dave,
First, I want to thank you for detailed comments that have made me think though this mix in some new directions.
I’ll try to address some of your comments in the order they are in your post (or at least close to it):

In listening back to the accordion with respect to the stage, I see your point that it moves front-to-back quite a bit – further than I had noticed during mixing. In my imagination I saw this image of an ethereal sounding accordion moving around and intentionally portrayed it that way, but apparently with too much contrast – maybe several shots of espresso.

If I understand what you’re noting about listening to the mix in headphones, you’re correct about how I monitored: For all imaging, I used the monitors rather than paying as much attention to how the depth translates to the cans. (The monitors are, of course, in the standard equilateral triangle in a room with the reflections and resonances dampened out per the monitoring position.) I used the headsets mainly for checking the balance of the extreme low end (since I don’t mix with a sub on the monitors) and paid too little attention to the headphone image – it shows.

On the placement of instruments vs. the genre, I have what I assume is an unusual taste that I’d love to hear your comments on:
When I’ve heard bluegrass/newgrass songs with a couple of hard-panned, up-front strings (banjos, mandolins, acoustic guitars – whatever was featured) that were far in front of the stage, I’ve loved that sound and really wished for more of this genre to be mixed that way since it interested me so much more when played on most common consumer sources (not saying that I didn’t take this one a bit far)…
I know the genre is typically put into a more confining stage – in fact, in some live traditional bluegrass competitions I’ve heard from contestant groups that they are required to mix themselves around one mic via proximity – which is an art of its own.

I wanted to bring a more lively movement and contrast to the stage (though overdone a bit on this mix) and I’ve really enjoyed listening to the result of this – and it appears from this forum that many less “informed” ears seem to also enjoy this pattern or “vibe”. Maybe I’m a bit of a rebel in that respect, but when I’ve heard a few others mix bluegrass very wide and lively, I’ve always hoped to find more of that music because it made me feel like I was on the stage with the musicians with an instrument or two on either side of me (right in my living room). Is there some reason that is such an unacceptable philosophy (if not taken quite as far as I did on this mix)? I’ve always enjoyed being unique and somewhat unrestrained by the norm, but it appears some see this as “unprofessional”.

You’ve given me the desire to work more on this one – trying to keep much of what I was after, but a bit less exaggerated and maybe a bit more glue. Hopefully I’ll have time to do that in the not too distant future. Even if I can’t, you’ve given me some refining points for future mixes.

Thanks for your helpful input!
Walt